Wings of Fire: Saguaro Legends

Chapter 9

     Saguaro sat looking out of the bay window at the sunset, sipping from the tawny clay mug full of a brown drink that Crimson's mother, Maroon, had made, called "hot cocoa."

         Life had been pretty great since she had come to live with Crimson's family, the best it had ever been really, she really felt a sense that this is what a family really was, and she hadn't even been there a year yet.

         Maroon walked into the room holding a small envelope, "Crimson, there's something that we got not long before you came back to us, you've been home awhile now, so I think I should give it to you now."

           Crimson set the candelabra that he had just finished lighting with his fire breath onto the top of the cabinet to accept the envelope from his mother.

            "Oh, no." he muttered after he began reading the letter inside, "I am not going back there."

             "Really?" his mother desperately tried to mask her elation with confusion, "Why? You seemed... excited that there was a way you could follow your father."

               Crimson shook his head, "No, that was Rouge, I just didn't want to look bad compared to him."

                 "Oh," Maroon nodded.

                 Crimson brought the letter up to his snout where he blew out a small jet of flame that sent the parchment crumbling into ashes in his palm, "It's over."